You don't use an i2c.bin to recover. You should never, EVER EVER need an i2c.bin unless your player no longer boots to anything except a pure black screen

well, such is my current situation. black screen, blue ring, that's it. no recovery mode. shows as 'PortalPlayer device' under PuppyLinux when placed in manufacturing mode -- and yes, 'libusb' is installed. tried running e200tool from root to no avail. yes i have the SD...rom file. so, that said... does anyone have the i2c for an e270 or any other suggestions? honestly, i'm not even exactly sure what that might do, but from these forums i've gleaned that to be the solution. thanks in advance.

FMX

okay... finally found the device (had to set Permissions to executable/searchable), but is now timing out

honestly, i'm not even exactly sure what that might do, but from these forums i've gleaned that to be the solution. thanks in advance.

The I2C tells the Sansa where to look for the bootloader. The bootloader tells where to look for the firmware. The firmware, boots, and is what you see It might be easier to think of it as a computer. I suppose the I2C could be considered the BIOS, the bootloader the...bootloader, and the firmware the OS. Even if the bootloader and firmware are working, without the I2C, you can't do anything.

This "occasionally" happens - just turn off the Sansa (hold power for 20 seconds) and try it again.

./e200tool i2cprogram i2c-e280.bin
[reboot Sansa, and it should now go to Manufacturing mode (should not appear as PortalPlayer device)]
./e200tool recover BL_SD_boardSupportSD.rom
[while holding the REC button, and continue holding until it goes into Recovery mode. If the Sandisk logo doesn't appear, there's a problem.]

That should get you into Recovery mode, where you need to save both the firmware AND the bootloader (BL_SD_boardSupport.rom - unless filename changed) onto the Recovery partition.